Legacy of Forgotten Times 168 The Claim

"Simple, we are going to write the names of the people we suspect here. You can only write three people. We will then number them from one to three. If the number one suspect on your list is a witch, then you gain three points and so on. The one with the highest points total wins. If we have the same points we will look at the total number of witches guessed and, if even that doesn't break the tie, we are going to call it a tie, agreed?" Linri said as he pulled out the notepad he carried in his jacket at all times before he wrote the names he suspected on it and tore it off before folding it. 

Seeing that, Ashley grabbed the notepad from his hands and did the same.

"Just so you know, to be the winner you are aware that you have to be alive, right?" Ashley said smugly.

"So what? I don't think I will be voted off today," Linri replied just as smugly.

"And why would that be?"

"Simple, because I am going to make a claim right now," Linri said as he started to walk towards the middle of the room.

"Everyone, can I have your attention please!?" The people in the room stopped talking with each other and paid attention to Linri

"As you all know, this is a game where we have to catch witches by voting them. Right now I am the only person with votes. I can understand the reason, I mean both the witches and townies are pretty scared of me right now. But think about it: don't you find this pretty weird? Why would I have so many votes as soon as the game started? Those people didn't even question me, but instead voted me just because of personal grievances. If you haven't caught onto the situation yet, that's extremely harmful to us, the townies. Look at the player count: seven people. Most importantly, we don't even know how many of them are witches.

Well, at least we know that there are at least two of them since rule number nine states that they know each other's identities, but what if there are not just the two of them... but three. In that scenario, we would have three townies and three witches and, after they kill someone tonight, we would only have two townies against their three witches. Basically, we would be losing our lives just because of some people's petty grievances. Then again, that's the worst-case scenario. The best-case scenario would be them only having two people, but, even if that's the case, we would have three townies to their two witches in the next day phase. Basically, we would have to catch a witch then and there without any mistake. Can all of you say you are one hundred per cent confident that you could do that? If not, why is it that some people are voting me for their own petty feelings and risking the lives of every single person here? From now on, if they keep voting me without a 'valid' reason, that must mean they are the witches and they must be voted off the next phase.

I can't prove that I am a townie, but I can at least give you an incentive to not vote me off. My role is 'Witch Hunter': each night I can check one player to see if they are a witch or not. If the person I visited is a witch, they are killed. Of course, there is always the case that I am lying, but don't you want to take this chance? What if I am telling the truth? So you at least have to give me this day so that I can use tonight to prove my identity. If I am killed tonight, you would know whether I was telling the truth or not. That way you would also be sure that you wouldn't be killed. I mean, why would the witches leave me alive if they knew I possessed such a dangerous role, so all of you guys would also be safe for the night. Isn't it worth it to take such a bet?" Of course, what Linri said was total bullshit as always. Even though he said that they would be safe for the night, there was no way that the witches would kill him if they weren't idiots. The correct move would be to leave Linri alone and cast suspicions on his alignment. If he was not a witch, then why was he alive the next day? Implanting that thought onto the townies, they would use this reasoning to vote Linri off. That way, they would have a chance to win, or at least they would guarantee they wouldn't lose. If they didn't lynch a witch today, their win would be for certain and, even if they did, they would guarantee that they would live one more day by lynching Linri. Probably, aside from Ashley, no one should have caught onto this fact. Anyway, for now, his only goal was to gain time for Hayato. Seeing that the events changed from the timeline of the club, it was a good thing that he came up with a backup plan this time.

"Then who do you think this glorious one should vote if not for you?" said Rondo.

"I can't say that. Everyone should have their own suspicions, whether a person is a townie or not. That's why I think everyone should give reasons as to why they are voting a person from now on. If their reason is convincing, we can vote the same person. If not, we can still vote the person we suspect."

"That doesn't help at all. We don't know anything, so how can we vote someone today?" Rina said.

"Who said that you had to vote? I suggest that we don't vote anyone today. We all can use our abilities tonight to gather more information and that way we would have more time to find the witches. After all, if we don't lynch anyone today, the next day phase we would have 3 townies in the worst case and 4 townies in the best-case scenario, meaning we would have an additional phase to catch the witches. Why shouldn't we do that? I bet no one here wants to see that an innocent person die, right?" Linri said. 

What he said was beneficial to the townies, so they didn't have to refuse. Also, if, despite this fact, someone votes him, they would be basically screaming 'I am a witch'. On short, thanks to this play, he had guaranteed that no one would touch him for today and tonight. Everyone else thought the same thing too. But, of course, this plan had its drawbacks: if no one was lynched today, the witches would have more of an incentive to kill him tonight. I mean, even if they didn't kill him, it would be pretty hard to frame him the next day phase and what if he finds a witch in his visit tonight? Townies might believe that he was lying, but, for witches, everything he said was the truth. After all, he had no reason to lie since they knew he was a townie and was trying to save himself. He needed one more move to ensure he was safe tonight.

"Also, I will be declaring who I am going to visit tonight: it's Riku," said Linri. 

This was a very risky move. If Riku was a witch, it would guarantee that they would be killing Linri tonight, but, if Riku was a town, they would not touch him for the night since they could still frame him the day after by not killing him. God! Linri's brain hurt from all this thinking. Also, at the same time, he felt like this was fun. 

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

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[Current Vote Tally]

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Linri let out a breath of relief. Even though he knew that this was how it was gonna go, it still felt nice to see it work. As his father said, there was no such thing as a perfect plan in this world, so he always felt nervous despite knowing the results.

"How did I do?" Linri walked back to Ashley's side again and said smugly.

"It was pretty good, but don't you think this will blow up in your face?" said Ashley.

"How so?"

"Didn't you claim you were smarter than me? Figure it out yourself, 'genius'," said Ashley sarcastically.

Do I really sound like that? That was the thought in Linri's mind after hearing her speak. No wonder people wanted to beat him up most of the time. Still, he didn't feel repulsed by that. He actually wanted to know more about her. How could they be so similar, yet he never heard anything about her? Did she have anything to do with OG Linri? That was a question he always threw at the back of his mind.

Before killing Max, the OG Linri had said they were going to be his playthings from now on. His thought was they were going to recreate the club and control their lives, just like Max and the gang did to them. This conjunction became even more apparent when they were sent back in time instead of continuing from the moment they switched places: after all, who could say that the same thing didn't happen to them? Maybe everything he did and felt was the result of his doing. Maybe these weren't his thoughts in the first place. It would also explain his failures. He wanted to learn more about Old Man James, but he left the school. He wanted to open up to a friend about his thoughts, but Solas learnt that he was a transmigrator and he lost their support, locking away his [Ex-Burst]. He wanted to be friends with Jaime, but they kept drifting apart. He wanted to escape from Elizabeth, but she kept forcing her way to his life. Everything he wanted to do blew up in his face. Even using his knowledge about the future didn't help. He wanted to break into Snow's room to gather information, but he came back even more confused. It didn't help that there was no way to confirm this either. Maybe these thoughts themselves were planted by the OG Linri himself so that he can play with him. He wanted to see him agonize over this question.

*Pant* *Pant* *Pant* *Pant* *Pant*

Linri started to breathe quickly. These thoughts were plaguing his mind. The world around him started to spin as the air became hotter. He felt like something was strangling his neck. He started to sweat profusely. He was having a panic attack!

"Kid! Kid! You okay!?" Richard appeared behind Linri instantly and caught him just as he was falling down.

Chapter end